UnionPay International teams up with Huawei to roll out Huawei Pay in Hong Kong and Macau

2020-04-09

UnionPay International (UPI) announces today its partnership with Huawei and four major banks in Hong Kong and Macau in rolling out Huawei Pay in the two markets. It is the first time that Huawei Pay is launched in Macau, and more HK customers can enjoy the service with more local issuers supporting it. So far, besides Hong Kong and Macau, Huawei Pay has also been launched in Russia, Pakistan, and Singapore.

In response to changes in consumer payment habits, UPI is committed to providing secure and easy mobile payment services to its cardholders outside mainland China. Huawei is a significant partner of UPI. In 2018, UPI inked a global cooperation agreement with Huawei to jointly roll out Huawei Pay in global markets. In July 2019, the two parties jointly launched Huawei Pay in Hong Kong and users of Huawei/Honor mobile phones can add their UnionPay cards issued by Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) to the Huawei Wallet app to enjoy the new tap-and-go payments.

The users of Huawei Pay can enjoy smooth payment experience at many merchants accepting UnionPay contactless payments. To date, UnionPay contactless payment service is accepted at more than 20 million POS terminals across 47 countries and regions, including more than 50,000 merchants in Hong Kong and Macao. These merchants include popular ones such as 7-11, Sanmiu Supermarket, and SOGO, etc. With this new cooperation between UPI and Huawei, users of Huawei/Honor devices in Hong Kong/Macau can add their UnionPay cards issued by ICBC Macau, BNU, BOC Hong Kong and ICBC Asia to the Huawei Wallet app to make tap-and-go payments with their mobile phones.

The global rollout of Huawei Pay at such a high efficiency can be attributed in part to the increasingly enhanced digital payment service capabilities of UPI. Overseas institutions are able to access the Huawei Pay solution simply by connecting to UPI’s Mobile Payment Service platform (UMPS). Through the API interface of UMPS, UPI’s partners can launch mobile payment services with higher efficiency and lower costs. The four institutions in Hong Kong and Macau launching Huawei Pay are all connected to UMPS.

The outbreak of COVID-19 drives more demands for contactless services relying on digital payment technology, and Huawei Pay is expected to be launched in more markets. At present, there are more than 4.5 million merchants outside mainland China accept mobile payment services offered by UPI, including tap-and-go and scan-and-go payments. And in 13 countries and regions, there are 62 e-wallets available on the market that are developed or upgraded based on UnionPay’s technologies.